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Society spins around you a cocoon of average. It tells you your big plans are unlikely or too audacious. It conditions you to stay inside a box instead of breaking out of one. Society teaches your obsession is unhealthy, strange, and even freakish. It tells you to buy a cute house, have a 401 (k), drive an hour commute, and spend evenings watching TV.
Stop toning it down and trading in your big dreams for average. Society has taught you your goals are unattainable and you’ve bought it. Do you just want out of life a steady job, the respect of your peers and a little retirement nest egg – or, do you secretly want to become massively successful? Personally, I want to have my cake and eat it, too. Why would I want cake if I can’t eat it?
For me, success has never been about just one thing or one achievement. I’ve always wanted a LOT of things. Success, in my view, is about being great at many things – and I suspect the same is true for you. I’m not satisfied with just having a lot of money, I want it all: health, wealth, family, love, recreation, community, and time to enjoy everything.
Society teaches you that you can’t have it all and must have balance. It labels people who are obsessed as outliers and freaks. What’s strange to me is that it’s considered normal to settle for mediocrity. Studies by Bankrate.com suggest that somewhere between 62-76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Average is a failing formula. People fail because of how they think.
You must rid yourself of average thinking and get obsessed. If you want a fire, you’ll need some wood. That car of yours in the garage needs gas. Your computer needs electricity. The same is true with your dreams: they need fuel. The best fuel for obsession is your purposes throughout your life.
Maybe today, you’re just about money. Well, good. Go and get that right! Or maybe you don’t care about money right now and just want to help people. Then go and get THAT right.
So, what is your potential? Continuing to reach your full potential is the fuel that will allow you to avoid getting lost, complacent, and satisfied. Your purposes in life will continue to grow, mature and evolve as you do. Regardless of how big your dreams are today, other possibilities within your potential will be revealed to you that will make previously out-of-reach targets look small. When you stop looking forward to accomplishing the next level, you are at risk. Don’t be average.
People accept the idea of average and being happy to spend their lives trying to buy happiness with borrowed money from credit cards they must pay off with money they earn from a job they hate. People are sold on the idea that if they reach the middle class, they’ll be better off than over 80% of the world – only to find themselves confused as to why they have no time for their families and no money left for pleasure.
If you can’t take care of your own dreams, how can you ever take care of your neighbor? If you can’t pay your own bills, how can you help the person who needs help? If you can’t make your dreams reality, how can you to encourage others to do it? You can’t! Unhappy people can’t teach you how to be happy and the poor can’t teach you how to get rich. Nor can an average person teach you how to be exceptional.
Martin Luther King Jr. said: “I have a dream …”
Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
A New York Times bestselling author, Cardone is the world’s No. 1 sales trainer and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media and finance. His privately-held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named him No. 1 of the “25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017.” He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, and MSNBC and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, CNBC, and Entrepreneur. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.
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